Trinket and Decorative Dishes

This gallery displays all of my trinket and decorative dishes. Each one is handmade and handpainted, and unique.

The distinction between “trinket” and “decorative” is based roughly on size but is very subjective. My initial trinket dish, “Curving Silhouette” was 3″ in diameter, much like other little dishes or shallow bowls used for decoration or to drop small items into such as jewelry for safekeeping. When I made “The Big Nap” I felt it was too large to be a trinket dish, though it might be used for one, and decided it might be more of a decorative item. So, I kind of make it up as I go along.

This little trinket dish is 4″ in diameter and made from natural white polymer clay. The black design is adapted from a daily sketch that is actually made from cut paper, in black of course, and Mimi was the model, “Curving Silhouette”. You can read more about the art and my daily sketches on The Creative Cat. Price includes shipping.

Each dish is formed and painted individually, and I only made eight of them, so just a few are left.

I rolled the clay fairly thin, cut it with a 4″ cookie cutter, and placed it in the bottom of an old cereal bowl and rolled a smaller bowl around the inside to thin the sides but leave the bottom a little thicker, then ran my finger around the edge to thin it out just a slight rounded edge.

The design is painted in matte black soy-based acrylic paint. I did not add a finish to protect it because I wanted the original look and feel of the clay and paint.

I’ve long wanted to experiment with polymer clay and fixated on this design when I first began thinking about my Sampler Box program, so this little dish was part of my first box.

This may be my last experiment with polymer clay, though. With all the warnings about its toxicity and my felines’ keen interest in what I was doing, I think I’ll try air-dry clay next time, until the time I can start firing things.

All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms.

Like this:

This 3.5” round curved dish is made from natural white polymer clay, handpainted with acrylic paints in a design adapted from a daily sketch, “Spring Window”, and embellishment. Price includes shipping.

Spring Window Trinket Dish

Spring Window Trinket Dish, back.

Spring Window Trinket Dish, side view.

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

The black silhouette is adapted from a daily sketch using the silhouette and color scheme of Spring Window using black, bright aqua and bright yellow. Mimi quietly settled on the windowsill in the studio on a sunny late afternoon, when the sun is best. I worked a simple, kind of abstract version of her contentedly watching out the window, the calming blue and purple and green showing in her fur, the bright yellow and pale green surrounding. You can read more about the art and my daily sketches on The Creative Cat.

ABOUT THE TRINKET DISHES

This little trinket dish is 3.5″ in diameter and approximately 1/2″ deep, made from natural white polymer clay. Each dish is formed and painted individually. When I first made polymer clay trinket dishes last year they were kind of lumpy until I worked out how to make the shape for “Curving Silhouette”, but I kept those lumpy beginner dishes knowing I’d do something with them. With one of the pet expos coming up I decided it was time to explore the idea of a little decorative painting on these, and especially those rays in a circle around the central figure. And those colors!

The design is painted in matte soy-based paint. I did not add a finish to protect it because I wanted the original look and feel of the clay and paint.

This may be my last experiment with polymer clay, though. With all the warnings about its toxicity and my felines’ keen interest in what I was doing, I’ve been working with air-dry clay until the time I can start firing things.

All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms.

Like this:

This 3.5” round curved dish is made from natural white polymer clay, handpainted with acrylic paints in a design adapted from a daily sketch, “World Cat”, and embellishment. Price includes shipping.

World Cat trinket dish.

World Cat trinket dish, back.

World Cat trinket dish, side.

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

The figure in the center is adapted from a daily sketch using the silhouette and color scheme of World Cat.

I sketched this on September 2, 2012, and on that day that I couldn’t sit down in my studio because a certain black cat had taken over my chair, so I was doing other things I could do standing because heaven forbid I move the cat. I remember I spun the chair and the light hit him just right and in the highlights and shadows in his fur I pictured the globe, blue and green, little bits of peach here and there, floating in the dusty cosmos of the Milky way, envisioning an ink sketch with watercolor in those colors.

And so I grabbed my watercolor pad and my favorite Pentel Hybrid Technica drawing pen and sketched his graceful cat curve and shoulders and big ears and minimal details. Then, because he often followed me when I left the room, I tiptoed so I wouldn’t wake him to get a jar of water and my watercolors and brushes and painted the interesting light falling on him from the window and from my work lights using the watercolors from my limited traveling palette, blue, green, purple, orange and yellow.

It was all over in about 15 minutes. I named the sketch “World Cat” not because Giuseppe represents the world of cats or cats of the world (though he might like to think so), but because I set it aside for the finishing glance and it really did look like an image of the earth from space, that lovely blue and green globe, that I’d seen in that first glance.

Or perhaps it worked out this way because I think the world of my cats.

This little trinket dish is 3.5″ in diameter and approximately 1/4″ deep, made from natural white polymer clay. Each dish is formed and painted individually. When I first made polymer clay trinket dishes last year they were kind of lumpy until I worked out how to make the shape for “Curving Silhouette”, but I kept those lumpy beginner dishes knowing I’d do something with them. With one of the pet expos coming up I decided it was time to explore the idea of a little decorative painting on these, and especially those rays in a circle around the central figure. And those colors!

The design is painted in matte soy-based paint. I did not add a finish to protect it because I wanted the original look and feel of the clay and paint.

This may be my last experiment with polymer clay, though. With all the warnings about its toxicity and my felines’ keen interest in what I was doing, I’ve been working with air-dry clay until the time I can start firing things.

All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms.

Like this:

This 4” round curved dish is made from black polymer clay, trimmed in red and stamped in gold with my brush pen sketch “Bath”. NOTE: This dish is not safe for food or water.

Six “Bath” trinket dishes.

Japanese lacquerware was a popular theme in homes when I was growing up, and I always admired the deep black and rich red with gilded decoration and the glossy finish of the wooden salt and pepper shakers my mother had as decorations in the kitchen. A trinket dish in this style had been coming to mind for a while, and for the decorative image featured in gold in the center I decided to use one of my brush pen sketches. I had also long studied and practiced Japanese brush pen techniques, and brush pen illustrations were often used on red and black lacquerware items. And, of course, brush pen sketches of cats are also a beloved theme in Japanese art, so it was a natural fit.

“Bath” fit well in shape and style, and because I would have a stamp made from the sketch I wanted to be sure the simplicity of the lines would work on the stamp.

Each dish is formed and painted individually. I rolled the clay fairly thin, cut it with a 4″ cookie cutter, and placed it in the bottom of an old cereal bowl and rolled a smaller bowl around the inside to thin the sides but leave the bottom a little thicker, then ran my finger around the edge to thin it out just a slight rounded edge.

The design is painted in red soy-based acrylic paint and the sketch stamped in gold ink in the center. I gave it a light coat of polymer finish to protect the surface.

All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms.

Like this:

The Big Nap Decorative Dish is 6.5″ wide x 5″ high, and about 1/2″ deep, made of polymer clay and painted with a variety of paints and finishes. Each one is handmade, hand-painted and unique. NOTE: This dish is not safe for food or water.

Big Nap Decorative Dishes

Original natural with black, “The Big Nap” decorative dish.

Black and red with gold, “The Big Nap” decorative dish.

Orange and blue with black, “The Big Nap” decorative dish.

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Jelly Bean’s roundness is a little exaggerated but it really was a big nap. Another one of the feline shapes I love.

“Big Nap” decorative dishes are based on one of my brush pen sketches, each one handmade, hand painted and unique, reflecting my influences from Japanese brush pen art, Theophile Steinlen, and Andy Warhol.

When I made my initial trinket dishes two years ago I developed a ton of ideas after working with both polymer and air-dry clay. The basis of one set of designs is my brush pen sketches integrated in several ways. I worked out the first of one of those styles, a little larger than the original 4″ trinket dishes, and using the outline of a sketch to shape the dish. Air-dry clay feels more like real clay but in earlier tests I found that worked this thin it would lose its strength, so I chose polymer clay.

The round shape of “The Big Nap” fit well to this idea. I didn’t really want to cut around all Bean’s legs so I added a little to the shape to fill in around his legs. Because the clay is baked and it works best if the object is held to the final shape while baking the size ended up being determined by the one dish I could use to form the gentle curve I wanted that could also be baked in the oven along with the clay. After it’s baked, I use the same brush pen to draw the sketch onto the clay that I used for the original sketch.

Japanese brush pen

Sometimes just a single interesting line is most expressive.

Original natural with black, “The Big Nap” decorative dish.

Theophile Steinlen

The red and black with gold is an homage to Theophile Steinlen’s style when illustration black cats with an accent color. He has been an inspiration since before I can remember, and while the black and white design was what inspired this particular dish, this design was the color version I envisioned before I knew I even wanted a color version.

Black and red with gold, “The Big Nap” decorative dish.

Andy Warhol

The orange and blue combination with the black outline is inspired by Andy Warhol. Years ago when I began filling my black ink and brush pen sketches with bright colors readers compared them to Warhol’s cats. Being from my hometown I had grown up with that as an influence and totally missed it. I’ll be making more of this style in a variety of other colors.

All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms.

Like this:

Heart Cats Decorative Dish is 6″ wide x 4″ high, and about 1/2″ deep, made of polymer clay and painted with a variety of paints and finishes. Each one is handmade, hand-painted and unique. NOTE: This dish is not safe for food or water.

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

This dish is made of polymer clay rolled very thin, baked in a form and then painted. I’ve always like this shape for a dish, rectangular, but raised at the corners so it’s graceful but can still really hold contents.

Edge of Heart Cat decorative dish.

The “Heart Cat” decorative dish design is based on a favorite Valentine card, “You Are My Heart Cat”, which in turn is based on a photo I took in 2009 of one of their heart-shaped hugs.

The siblings of the Fantastic Four often cuddle and hug, cheek to cheek, but this design, adapted from the original heart-shaped cats photo of Mr. Sunshine and Mewsette, is still my favorite. The background color is adapted from the color of their eyes, though the card printed a little too yellow and I just went with that rather than reprinting. This time I purchased a shade of polymer clay that was just about exact, except of three little packages of it, only one was the right color. I guess they just have eyes too pretty to match!

Heart Cats original photo.

Heart Cats a little bit Photoshopped.

You Are My Heart Cat Valentine.

Because the clay is baked and it works best if the object is held to the final shape while baking the size ended up being determined by the one dish I could use to form the gentle curve I wanted that could also be baked in the oven along with the clay.

All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms.

All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms.

All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of an image or a product including this image, check to see if I have it available already.